German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz on Thursday rolled out its sixth locally assembled model, the GlA Class of SUVs, and also formally commissioned the third assembly line at its plant near here.
The new locally-assembled GlA Class of SUVs come up to Rs1.5 lakh to Rs2.5 lakh cheaper than the imported models at Rs31.31 lakh for GlA 200 CDI and the GlA 200 CDI Sport at Rs34.25 lakh (ex–showroom Pune), as the local parts sourcing has been increased to 60 per cent.
When asked whether the company will increase the localisation further, Mercedes-Benz India Managing Director and chief executive Eberhard Kern answered in the negative saying more local sourcing is not feasible with current volumes. “Having higher than 60 per cent local sourcing of parts means you go into full-fledged production and not assembling. To begin full-fledged production, you need to have at least 70,000 to 1,00,000 units of sales for a model, which looks distant in the near future,” Kern said.
It can be noted that its smaller rival BMW had last month announced up to 50 per cent local sourcing for some of its models from the earlier 20 per cent and has plans to take this to over 70 per cent going forward.